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Photos from the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael
American River at Effie Yeaw Nature Center shows off a strong current in March 2016.
Through the process of elimination, it seemed like a good idea yesterday to visit Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael. It’s one of those places you know is there, and maybe you’ve been there before, but it slips out of your memory banks. Then, after a visit you’re kicking yourself as to why you don’t go there more often. Even a busy Sacramento Realtor needs to get in touch with nature every so often, just to stay grounded, in touch with what’s really important in life, which I’ve come to understand is life itself.
We first had planned to drive up to Daffodil Hill. We called and they said all the flowers were crushed by our recent rainstorms. Well, Daffodil Hill is 50 miles away, more than an hour from Land Park in the foothills. A closer spot to observe nature would be the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, between Davis and West Sacramento. Also closed, due to flooding. Although that’s not from rain. That’s from opening the weirs and allowing excess water to flow into it because it is a . . . Bypass.
I list and sell a lot of homes in Carmichael, but I never stop by the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. It’s so close, too. It took me forever to print out the trail map, for some reason, and then I left it at home on my printer. It’s emblem is the acorn woodpecker, which is an interesting looking bird (oh, aren’t they all?). Big round eyeballs, with a bandit mask around its face, white stripes on its black wings and a red Yarmulkeh on its head. We found many acorn woodpeckers but since I also left my Canon Sureshot at home, I didn’t capture any photos of those.
What did startle me was a deer who appeared out of nowhere on our trail, then hopped off like a rabbit through the fields to meet up with the rest of the deer off yonder by the Valley Oak trees. Butterflies flitting about. There are rattlesnakes, a poisonous type, so the signs caution that you should not go off the path, like rattlesnakes know where to go, but they do tend to stay away from people. Wild turkeys also run free, gobbling and chit-chatting as they tromp about so defiantly.
Below are photos I shot with my iPhone during our journey on the trails and to the American River at Effie Yeaw Nature Center. Some, obviously, were taken indoors in the education center. I tried to get the kestrel and owl in photos but they were not cooperating, and it’s tough shooting through glass.
Otter with Crab at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Wild turkey at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Beaver chipping away at wood at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Deer running through the grass at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael.
Male mallard duck on the American River banks of the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Hiking path, one of many, at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California, features acorn woodpeckers.
Your Carmichael Realtor Presents Another Home for Sale
Your Carmichael Realtor presents 6919 Lincoln Avenue in Carmichael.
There is no time in my day to get geared up over the New Hampshire Primary when I’ve got a new listing for a home in Carmichael to market. This Carmichael Realtor has been busy. Although, I must say that we can blame Saturday Night Live now for seeing Larry David anytime we spot Bernie, and not really the nice side of Larry David but more the other, which isn’t really fair to the old guy but c’est la vie. True, check out Bern Your Enthusiasm on Hulu at the Rolling Stone. I’m not always in tune with what’s going on in the world, though, when I’m focusing on listing homes in Carmichael, or anywhere in Sacramento for that matter.
This was evident when I sped away from the home in Carmichael yesterday afternoon on my way to another listing when I noticed the outside temperature registered on my dashboard at 75 degrees. Whoa. That explained why I wasn’t immediately chilled when I left the house. It explained why the Mercedes convertible next to me at the light was not a new vehicle yet the top was down. It explained why the woman pushing a stroller on the sidewalk was wearing a tank top. All these peripheral things that lightly land on my brain and flit away, unexplained.
My new listing for this Carmichael Realtor is a three-bedroom, two-bath, single-story ranch style home built in 1973. You remember 1973, right? Cover of the Rolling Stone from Dr. Hook. No joke. Another Rolling Stone reference. I heard that song flow through my head as I stared at the original tiled floor in the entryway. It is sort of figure-eight-shaped, in immaculate condition. They don’t produce tile like that anymore. In fact, the whole floor plan is open and flows well from room to room, more than 1,800 square feet.
Directly in front as you enter is the formal living room, and off to the right is a separate family room, dining area and the kitchen. The seller has an amazing Yamaha piano — pristine polished condition, with felt laid over the keys — which he would like to sell. It’s in the huge family room, along with the raised brick fireplace. He may hold an estate sale prior to moving. All of the bedrooms are large and filled with light. You’ll find a covered patio in the back, through the newly installed dual pane slider.
The home is located in Stollwood Estates and is close to the Glen Oaks Swim and Tennis Club. Rolling lawns, lush landscaping, beautiful trees and well maintained homes. 6919 Lincoln Avenue, Carmichael, CA 95608, is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate and your Carmichael Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub, at $359,000. For more information or a private showing, call 916.233.6759.
Dealing With Square Footage Problems at Sacramento County Assessor
Unpermitted additions can cause square footage problems when selling
We didn’t have to worry too much years ago about the square footage problems of a home in Sacramento not matching the property records on file at the Sacramento County Assessor’s office because appraisals were less restrictive. Nowadays, though, it’s a different story. The first thing I do when analyzing a potential listing is to look for variances between the stats I can find in MLS with the tax records. They’ve gotta jibe, and if they don’t, that can spell trouble for my sellers.
I address this situation upfront. Sometimes, there is a permit on file that the assessor hasn’t picked up. There are many reasons why a variance may exist, but the most common issue is a square footage problem for an unpermitted addition. In that event, the appraiser might not consider the additional square footage. You might think to yourself, oh, who gives a crap about a 12 x 12 room until you stop to consider that at $300 a square foot, that equates to a $43,200 loss.
Immediately, my sellers of a home in Carmichael appeared in person at the County. They believed they had a permit for a master bedroom and master bath addition. They also believed the appraisal they had received from The Golden1 when they refinanced. That appraisal referenced a permit number for the addition that, when we looked it up, was a permit for an HVAC and not a room addition. That appraisal also showed the home had an additional 500 square feet, which it did not; turns out it was only 300 more square feet over the tax records.
We lost the first buyers for the home, who had offered more than list price during a multiple-offer situation. Their appraiser discovered the home was 200 square feet less, and the buyer freaked out. He canceled and did not want to buy a home with square footage problems. At this point, I called the agent for the second buyer in line and we offered the home to that buyer at a price reflective of the lower square footage, including a promise the sellers would obtain an AS BUILT permit. Because the difference still between the tax records and the actual square footage was another 300 square feet.
This meant in retrospect The Golden1 appraiser messed up and had prepared a lazy and inaccurate appraisal. The contractor who completed the addition had misled the sellers to believe they had a permit. You can bet the sellers were disappointed to have to deal with the square footage problems but not nearly as disappointed as they would have been had I not brought this up at the inception of the listing.
Bottom line, we got the AS BUILT permit and closed. The sellers were still financially ahead of the game, and they paid an extra $3000 to expedite the permit. From start to finish, the entire process took about 3 weeks. It could have been much worse had we not started the process when we did. They were able to close on schedule and move out of state as planned. Another crisis averted.
Hiring a Sacramento Realtor with experience matters.
Whose Listing Is It Anyway?
If a Sacramento real estate agent doesn’t spend much time online, the agent is kinda hosed in this business. Many agents and their sellers are unaware that a listing can show up on a popular website without the listing agent’s name or contact information. It happens every single day, as there are many homes for sale in Sacramento on the internet without the name of the listing agent or listing broker. This means not only does the listing agent remain unknown, but a potential buyer will probably call a buyer’s agent at a competing brokerage.
On the Elizabeth Weintraub website, through my MetroList-partner IDX feed, buyers can search every single listing among homes for sale in Sacramento. Every listing brokerage is identified in this listing feed because that’s the way our Sacramento MLS works. It complies with the law because it makes up its own rules. It’s pretty much the god of Sacramento real estate.
Try explaining this to an annoyed real estate agent who can’t figure out why my picture and contact information shows up on his listing. I regularly get those kind of calls. Agents need to monitor and work on their internet presence. I’ve been working online since 1991. It’s pretty much second nature to me. I go back to Bulletin Boards and squealing dial-up modems.
So, yeah, my listings enjoy great exposure. Put my name into Google and you’ll find almost 1,000,000 results. I challenge you to go to a website and not find one of my listings among the homes for sale in Sacramento. I plaster my listings everywhere and treat each as the individual piece of gold that it is.
At the same time, I provide every listing on all Sacramento homes for sale and beyond on my website. If you’re looking for Sacramento homes for sale, the website for Elizabeth Weintraub is the place to be.
You can call me at 916 233 6759. I answer my phone.
Can This Carmichael Short Sale Be Saved?
A short sale home in Carmichael closed escrow this week that might not have closed at all if it had fallen into the paws of some other Sacramento short sale agent. But fortunately, the seller called me. It was kind of like a story that could be printed in a national magazine. Remember those magazine articles from Ladies Home Journal: Can this marriage be saved?To be honest, I wouldn’t read the story, you know, I’d just say NO and throw the magazine back on the table in the doctor’s waiting room. Well, this is a version of what I call: Can this short sale be saved?
It had everything set against it except willing participants. There were a lot of drawbacks. See, as a Sacramento short sale agent, I know that the secret to closing a short sale is to correctly assess the situation upfront and address potential issues. Here were some of the issues with this particular Carmichael short sale:
- Green pool
- No water service
- Charged-off first mortgage
- Second Bank of America mortgage
- Seller had no additional funds
Not to mention, the comparable sales could go either way. Up or down. It was a non-conforming Carmichael neighborhood with a mix of expensive and entry-level homes. That meant we could have difficulties with a BPO. There was also a slight odor from a cat. All the ingredients for a challenging short sale.
My first and foremost duty is always to the seller. We had to figure out a way to close this short sale with the least amount of problems and try to put some cash into the seller’s hands. We had to make sure the delinquent water bill did not become a lien, because in a HAFA short sale the seller cannot pay a recorded lien from the relocation incentive, but a seller can pay a utility bill. An agent who doesn’t do a lot of HAFA short sales would not know this fact.
We also needed to clean up the pool because the buyer for this house would most likely be an FHA buyer. You can’t get an FHA loan with a green, slimy pool. To clean up the pool, we had to turn on the water. The water had been shut off because nobody lived there anymore and the bill was a few months overdue. Another requirement for a HAFA relocation incentive is the seller has to occupy the property. The seller can do a HAFA without living in the home but she won’t qualify for the incentive if she’s not physically living in the house.
However, the icing on the cake with this short sale was the fact the loan had been sent to charge-off. The new lender was not a participant in HAFA. That meant the seller could not do a HAFA short sale. So, that idea was a moot point. On top of all of this, the short sale would be delayed because the second was held by Bank of America. This meant dealing with Equator for the second just like it was a first, except it wasn’t. Archaic procedure for a second mortgage. 90-day escrow period minimum. Every time I turned around, an obstacle presented itself.
Another Sacramento short sale agent might not have listed this short sale. I couldn’t do that to the sellers. The sellers were some of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Sweet, kind, caring. They had a strong attachment to the home. There was an emotional bond. It was not easy for them to sell this house. But I knew we just had to find the right buyer. There is always the right buyer for a home, even a home scented by a cat with kidney disease.
It took a while but we found a buyer. The sellers borrowed money from relatives, worked out a deal with the water company and shocked the pool. It was a struggle to keep the utilities on. People don’t think about what sellers have to go through to sell a short sale when they no longer live in the home. They have to pay for utilities in 2 homes. Many people can’t afford the utility bills for one home much less 2 homes. They have to protect the home and check it after showings because careless agents can leave doors unlocked, which is a disgrace in itself.
I was able to work out a compromise with the new first lender to pay an incentive to the seller even though she did not qualify for a HAFA short sale. It was enough to repay her relatives, pay the remaining balance of her water bill and ease other expenses. The lender gave us a break on the BPO due to the cat odor. We got approval from both lenders. And perhaps the nicest ending was the seller met the buyers the day it closed and was able to talk with them, show them how to operate the pool, listen to their ideas for home improvement projects and gracefully exit. That’s the ideal ending for every short sale: a graceful exit.
